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The Id and The Odyssey; Episode 22

The Food For Thought Episode

Rich woke the
next morning when he heard the shower. After laying and thinking of
the events that took place a few hours earlier he went downstairs and
into the kitchen. Frank was sipping a cup of coffee.

“You Okay?”
he asked.

Rich nodded
sleepy-eyed.

“I’m going
into the terminal,” Frank said. “Why don’t you get some more
rest. I’m not going to need you today.”

Rich nodded and
went back to bed.

At ten o’clock
Mrs. Jankowski woke Rich. She was the female version of Mr.
Jankowski. She was short, stout, and spirited. “Is there something
I can get you?”

“I got to get
to the terminal,” Rich said raising and resting on his elboys. “I
told Mr. Jankowski I’d work today.”

“I’m going to
take lunch to the people working at the terminal. Can you help me
finish and load the car then we’ll drop it off at the terminal?”
She said.

“Sure,” Rich
said, “but can I shower first?”

“There’s
towels in the top drawer,” she said pointing to a chest of drawers.
“I’ll let you alone so you can get ready.” She looked at Rich's
scraggly beard. “Do you want to shave?”

“Yeah,” Rich
said, “It’s been a week.”

“I’ll get a
razor,” she said and left the room.

After showering
and shaving Rich ran his hand across his smooth face. He looked into
the mirror. “Do I look eighteen?” He thought. “I hate the
pretense. I hate using another name. I hate dealing dishonestly with
good people.”

Rich and Mrs.
Jankowski loaded a station wagon with dining supplies and the food
she had been preparing that morning. Rich was unable to keep up with
her. They stopped at a grocery and picked up four cases of soft
drinks.

They drove toward
the terminal.

“I think Frank
would like for you to stay around for awhile,” Mrs. Jankowsi said.
“He is really grateful for what you did last night.”

“I didn’t do
anything,” Rich said. “I did the only thing.”

“It was very
brave of you,” she said.

“I’m not
brave,” Rich said. “I’m pretty much a coward.”

“Being afraid
is one thing being a coward is something else,” she said. “Would
you like for me to get in touch with your Mom and Dad?”

The offer
surprised Rich. “No,” he said. “I just want to move on if it’s
all the same.”

“Have you got
problems at home,” she said. “I sense that you do.”

Rich looked out
the car window pretending not to hear, but something, anything, is
better than a mystery to flow freely and weave though the mind to
attract suspicious theories.

“I have some
problems,” Rich said, “but I want to leave them where they are.
No one can undo what is and what is not. I’ve got to move on. I set
out to do something and I can’t get sidetracked.”

She smiled and
looked passively at the road.

“I’ll never
forget you folks,” Rich said.

“If you want,
you can stay at our place for a while,” she said.

“I got to get
to Maine before the snow flies,” Rich said.

“What if we
were to buy you a bus ticket?” She proposed.

He mused with the
idea for a moment. “No, I can’t do that. That’s nice for you to
offer, but I don’t want to be sidetracked.”

“Well the offer
is out there,” she smiled.

They unloaded the
food and all the other items at the terminal.

Frank promised
his employees that as long as the company was operating under
emergency circumstances he would provide all the meals in addition to
the overtime pay.

Everyone sat on
boxes, benches and folding chairs on the loading dock just outside
the office. Rich sat near an open dock door away from everyone else.

Frank hovered
over his plate of food and ate like a field hand. He loved moving
freight. He didn’t care whether he was the boss or the hired hand,
he just liked moving things and he did it with incredible efficiency
and joy. Those around him were energized by his presence. He was a
motivator by example. People even began to eat like him when he sat
beside them. Rich smiled at Frank. Frank smiled. In an instant he
knew that Rich understood him completely.

Frank got another
scoop of baked beans and sat next to Rich. “Did my wife talk to ya
about stayin‘?”

“Yes sir,”
Rich said. “I can’t begin to tell you what that means to me, but
I started out to accomplish something. A lot of people say I don’t
finish what I start. I’m going to finish this. I just have to do
it.”

“I think
there’s something more to this than a bike ride to Maine,” Frank
said. “You got something deep going on. I sure wish I could help.”

“You already
have,” Rich said.

“You mean
almost getting you shot?” Frank said.

“Just watching
you,” Rich said, “I’m not so sure I really understand, but I
fill better for knowing you and being here.”

“Spend another
night with us,” Frank said.

“You’re not
going to try and talk me out of anything are you?” Rich said.

“If I did I
might regret it more than you,” Frank said. “I don’t want to
stand in the way of what you got your heart set on.”

“Sure, I’ll
spend another night,” Rich said. “But I’m going to work for
what I ate.”

From Kenton Lewis: You Must Read This First To Know What The Heck Goes On Here

This site contains mostly fiction. Currently a novel is posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday entitled Beyond Beyond. It is broken down into short episodes between two and four pages each. Thus, if you enter on anything other than episode 1, it would be good the scroll down to find previous episodes.

The archives are full of short stories. Some short stories are very short, just one posting. Others are broken down into episodes also.

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This Is He

Taken shortly after my beheading. I refused to give up coffee. "Not from my cold dead hands!"